Blood Bound
by Vampy Sparda
Summary: Though they have different viewpoints, their blood still connects them to one another. A couple of short ficlets centering around the rivalry between Dante and Vergil.
1. Chapter One : Blood Bound

**(AN : Okay. So, I'm not dead. Surprised? You should be. This is probably the first thing I've written since… oh, I don't know… like last July? I wrote it for my very good friend Bustahead, a.k.a. Simi, for her birthday. I actually started writing this before DMC3 came out, but after I played a little bit of it I went back to this and used some dialogue from the game. So… yes. It's Vergil-centric, just because I wanted to dive into his mind a little bit. He's got quite a complicated personality. Anyways, enjoi.)**

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**Blood Bound**

_The boy shrank away from the scorching flames, looking around wildly. He wrapped his long nightshirt around his tiny body and shivered, despite the immeasurable heat in the room. Orange-blue flames danced a dangerous game around him as his beautiful home fell to ash. He quickly put a hand to cover his face as he felt himself begin to cry._

"_Mom! Dante! Where are you?" he said softly, trying hard to raise his voice but failing._

_The fire quieted for a moment, long enough for Vergil to hear the scream of his little brother. The cry ended abruptly as he heard his mother talking over the roar of the flames for Dante to calm down._

"_Vergil! Where are you?" she cried over the flames, rocking back and forth with a tiny Dante curled up in her lap, hanging on to her for dear life. _

_As Vergil was about to cry out to his mother for help, he stopped as he saw a pair of red eyes in the orange of the fire. In the flames, a black mass moved itself easily through as if it could care less about the heat. As the figure came closer, Vergil could see a reptilian face, connected to a huge, rotting body that stank of meat. The last thing that Vergil could remember seeing was sharp yellow fangs glinting in a blood-oozing mouth…_

Vergil chuckled as he opened his eyes. Why, of all of his memories, would he think of _that_? He remembered he had almost died that day. He remembered how his eyes had still been covered with a child's innocence. He had had a lot back then.

Now what did he have? Two dead parents and an annoying twit for a little brother.

_Come on Dante. Don't you remember your own childhood? We used to be such loving brothers. Twins, even! Twins are supposed to be bound together with a bond tighter than any other bond in this world._

Vergil chuckled again. He couldn't help it. Even thinking about once being so naïve made him smile.

_Don't you worry, little brother. I'll fulfill father's true nature. This human world won't remain pure for too much longer._

Twirling his Yamata, Vergil looked back to Arkham, who was sitting on one of the magnificent sin statues, reading the book that he had been carrying with him for so long.

"Does he still have it, Arkham?" Vergil asked, looking down again from atop Temen-Ni-Gru.

"Yes, he still has it. He's been taking good care of it. Why wouldn't he, seeing as it's the only memento left from your dear mother?" Arkham smiled as he looked back down at his book.

"But he has no idea of its true power." Vergil held onto his half of his mother's amulet, imagining it completed after he had attained Dante's half.

_I still think I may love you, little brother. But don't think my blood ties will stop me from killing you, if I must. Nothing will impede my dream. Nothing._


	2. Chapter Two : The Battle

Authoress' Note : Yes, I know. It originally WAS going to be one chapter. But I decided Bustahead deserved more than one (even though this is way late). This is really just something I wrote so I could practice doing action/fighting scenes. Mostly, this is my first one, so be nice. It's really early in the morning at the moment, so I'm sure there are some mistakes I missed when reading over it, so forgive me.

I guess you could see this as continuing off the first chapter, but I didn't really intend for it to. And I have no idea why I decided to call them Red/Blue-coat for half of it. I wanted to do something a bit different, I s'pose. I think Imight continue this chapter, so be on the look for it later on. Sorry if it's a bit short, too. These things always look a lot longer in Word...

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**The Battle**

He swung the blade up hard, deflecting the down-coming broadsword with an enormous _clang_. A swift roll to the right had him back on his feet in seconds. Promptly he lunged forward at a great speed, feeling a slight jerk as his blade hit flesh. He cut downward, slicing through flesh like water until his sword hit the wet ground, bouncing back up so hard that he almost stumbled. He regained himself quickly, standing up straight then turning to face his opponent with a grim face. His dark blue coat shivered in the wind, whipping around his wet body. The thunderheads above the duelers roared their approval, unleashing more torrents of rain upon the two figures.

A steady drip of crimson streamed from the other man's body, covering his bare chest in a color as red as his coat. A deep slice decorated his muscled torso, showing off the pale pink of muscle. As he touched the injury instinctively, the blood flow slowed. The skin on each side of the cut began _stretching_, lacing and covering the gaping wound. Within seconds, the cut was gone, and only a small pink line was left in wake of the sword wound.

"You've gotten faster," Red-Coat growled.

Blue-Coat smiled as he slid the edge of his Yamato along the slick cement. "I've been practicing." He stopped, thoughtful. "Waiting for my power to awaken." He lifted his weapon to chest-level, leveling it out and watching Red-Coat's blood drip onto a wet finger. He licked it off, slowly and casually. "I see your blood still has not awakened yet."

Red-Coat smirked, stifling a laugh. "Awakened? I don't need _that_ form to beat you."

"You still hold a grudge against Father," Blue-Coat stated. A silence pierced the night, and it seemed to block out even the pitter-patter of the steady rainfall. Another stark-white bolt flashed overhead, highlighting the dragon-esque statues atop the tower. The moon moved out from behind a cloud, covering the world in a chilled white glow. Red-Coat ran forward without warning, his broadsword aiming straight for Blue-Coat's ice-covered heart. Blue-Coat didn't even twitch.

The sword's aim was true.

But Blue-Coat's skin was skin no more.

Rebellion bounced off as easily as a rubber ball, surprising Red and throwing his balance off. The sword fell to the ground with an audible _clang_. He looked down to see a silver steel claw – which had erupted from Blue's arm – stuck in his gut. Again he found himself covered in his own blood.

Blue's face was splattered with his brother's blood, his _father's _blood, and he could not help but feel elated. "'_No grudge with a serpent ever lasts.'" _He quoted, his voice tinny because of his metal-imbued body.Pausing, a look of regret passed over his demonic features quickly, but soon enough his face reverted to its normal coldness. The tips of his blackened horns shined dully in the moonlight as the moon slowly rose higher towards the zenith. "Do you really suppose you could kill me with that human blood of yours? Father left us a great legacy, Dante. _Embrace it._"

Despite Dante's situation, he grinned impishly as he looked up to the cold steel of his brother's demon face, Vergil's metallic wings making ringing noises echo hollowly through the icy night. "Don't forget, Verge. You have the same blood as I do. As Mother does."

With that he ripped himself away from the deadly appendage, rolling back and leaving a slick, ragged trail of blue-tinted blood behind him. The blue and black striped demon followed suit, its katana held firmly in its hand, ready to finish the battle. He made a quick jab at the rolling form of Dante, missing it by inches but receiving a boot to the knee as its reward. Vergil stumbled, landing on his other knee and sending a painful jerk up his leg and into his spine. Before he had a chance to recover, another kick sent him sliding backwards, metal skin scraping along the hardened stone of the tower, sending sparks flying and making the knee still on the ground heat up quickly.

Vergil stifled a grunt of pain as the burning sensation sunk in. Looking down, he saw that friction had caused the iron spikes decorating his knees to be sharpened into deadly points. Using his wings to propel himself forward, he slammed the sharpened knee into Dante's sitting form, pushing him backwards and making him fall hard onto his back. Stillness settled over the twins, both breathing heavily and letting the rain wash off the sweat, grime, and blood from the on-going feud. Dante's hair stuck to his face in clumps, impairing his vision slightly. He pushed his ivory bangs behind his ear without a second thought.

A _whoosh_ came from Vergil as he reverted back to his human form. He wavered slightly as he labored to stand up, feeling drained from the transformation. Dante sat up slowly, bones cracking loudly as he looked to find Rebellion resting coldly beside him. Putting a hand around the old sword's hilt, Dante felt a ping of familiarity.

Audible footsteps caused the twins to look in unison to see a young girl around their age walking towards them. A scowl was lying across her pretty face, making her usually soft features harsh. The scar on her nose seemed even more prominent as she frowned. Her ebony hair seemed to become even darker as the rain splashed against her, soaking her through. A regular white blouse exposed pale, white flesh as she shifted her enormous firearm across her shoulders. Dante instinctively looked her up and down as he always did when a female entered the scene as Vergil remained as calm as ever. Both did not like the intrusion of this female human.

Breathing shallow breaths, Dante used Rebellion to stand up and face her. He grimaced, though he was relieved to see her still alive. "Get out of here, Lady. This is no place for a little girl."

She scoffed at the comment, kicking a dark red boot across the stone ground. "Well isn't this interesting. I see you demons have been fighting without me." The word 'demon' dripped with malice and hatred. She smiled at the demonic duo as her eyes shown with murderous intent. "Didn't your mother ever tell you, 'Ladies first'?"


End file.
